Four injured, including two children, in jump from Whitman train

The most seriously injured was identified by authorities as Erin Kelly, 38, of East Bridgewater.

Elaine Allegrini

Four people, including two children, were injured when they jumped off a moving train as it left the MBTA commuter rail station on South Avenue on Sunday, authorities said.

The most seriously injured, identified by authorities as Erin Kelly, 38, of East Bridgewater, was airlifted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.

“None of the injuries are life-threatening,” MBTA spokesman Joseph Pesaturo said in a prepared release.

Two others, identified as Christopher Karo, 51, of Lakeville and his 8-year-old son, also Christopher Karo, were taken to Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center, Brockton, for treatment of their injuries. Kelly’s son, Mitchell Herbert, 7, was treated at the scene by paramedics, authorities said.

Confusion erupted about 5:20 p.m. as the Kingston-bound train was pulling out of the Whitman station.

About eight passengers who had just gotten off the train during the stop stood nearby and appeared stunned and confused to see the people jumping, according to one of the first people on the scene.

“The train was leaving the station when a mother and son for some reason jumped from the train to the platform,” Whitman Fire Lt. Tim Grenno said. “The conductor had cleared the train and announced the train was leaving Whitman.”

The 7-year-old boy jumped first and his mother followed. A second unrelated youth thought he was supposed to get off, so he jumped, too, and his father jumped to get him, said Grenno.

All four landed on the southern end of the platform, the train moving at abut 5 miles an hour, according to MBTA spokesman Joseph Pesaturo. After the four jumped off, the train stopped just south of the station.

“The conductor stopped them and radioed the engineer to stop,” Pesaturo said.

As to what caused the chain reaction jumping, Pesaturo said he assumes Kelly saw her son get off the train and didn’t want him alone on the platform. It was unclear why the second youth jumped off. Authorities said the two families are not related.

The call for medics came in when the Whitman fire station was empty, on-duty firefighters/medics out on two unrelated calls.

“An off-duty firefighter was walking in when the phone was ringing,” Grenno said.

His crew, meanwhile, cleared the other calls and joined Hanson at the train station to transport the injured. An emergency medical helicopter landed at Saftler’s at routes 14 and 18 to pick up Kelly and take her to Boston.